Initiatives to improve achievement

The new curriculum guides what is taught, how it is taught and the way it is assessed.

Principal leaders and teacher leaders provided local support for implementation to schools.

Further support was made available through an extensive professional learning program provided across the state and a range of resource materials distributed to schools.

The professional learning program also built in a focus on inclusive education, to ensure all students benefit from the new curriculum.

The documents Planning Learning Sequences, Research into Action and Essential Learnings Assessing Guide were distributed to schools, as well as the video Numeracy is Everywhere.

School and cluster-based professional learning was supported by the package of booklets Guiding Learning Communities.

The Essential Learnings assessment approach was designed, trialed and adopted by all schools as a cooperative activity between teachers that enabled them to use and manage methods for making clear and consistent judgements about student learning against the Essential Learnings.

A key focus will be encouraging teachers to work collaboratively on planning, teaching and assessment.

From calibration and samples of student work, progression statements were written to describe expected levels of student performance within the standards. These will be used for assessment and reporting.

Calibration continued in 2004-05.

Work started on developing assessment tasks for Acting democratically, Being information literate and Reflective thinking.

The calibration of Acting democratically and Being information literate will be completed.

Work will begin on validating the standards for Understanding the natural and constructed world.

The timeframe for reporting against the Essential Learnings was extended by 12 months following feedback from teachers and principals.

At the end of 2005, all schools will be required to report using at least the minimum reporting requirements:

• written comments about students’ learning in Thinking and Communicating
• information about key learning activities
• assessments for Being literate, Being numerate and Maintaining wellbeing.

The key purpose of Qmap is to assist teachers of Kindergarten to Year 10 to make consistent assessments of student work using the standards of the Essential Learnings.

Four student-free professional learning days were allocated to all Kindergarten to Year 10 government schools for moderation.

Moderation days enabled teachers to collaboratively assess student work.

Feedback was received from over 3,000 teachers following the moderation days. This will be used to inform and refine future moderation processes.

Catholic schools trialed assessment tasks to support teachers’ moderation of standards for Maintaining wellbeing and Inquiry. These tasks were then completed by all Years 6 and 10 students in government schools.

Results from the assessment tasks will be provided to schools to help teachers use the curriculum standards consistently.

School and cluster moderation will continue.

Large employers and employer groups, including group training organisations, provided ideas about how to make Year 10 reporting useful to employers.

The system was trialed in selected schools in second term, 2004, with demonstrations to key stakeholders held during the rest of the year.

In 2005 SARIS was available to all schools and funding was provided to enable all teachers to undertake professional learning in its use.

The final phase of SARIS development, which will incorporate reporting on VET assessments for students in Years 11 and 12, will commence.

Teachers were supported in intercultural language learning through the Australian government’s Asian Languages Professional Learning project which was adapted to align with the Essential Learnings.

In 2005 the program was expanded to support collaborative planning, and to assist with aligning LOTE with the Essential Learnings in secondary schools.

Teaching and learning models that aligned with the Essential Learnings were developed.

In 2004 the Tasmanian project was run as an adjunct to the Discovering Democracy project.

A part-time project officer was appointed to manage school grants, facilitate professional learning and develop online resources to support the project.

Statewide professional learning sessions were run to enhance the use of project materials within the Essential Learnings and to trial online materials that were developed.

Development of a plan for the next round of Commonwealth funding commenced.

Materials from project schools will be submitted to the National Centre for History Education and considered for publication on the Learning, Teaching and Assessment Guide website.

The project is expected to continue until December 2006.

Reports were provided on the performance of each student and each school, allowing comparison with state averages and other similar schools. The reports also provided information on national benchmarks.

Consultation took place on a new format for reporting on literacy and numeracy.

• estimate the effects of various factors that contribute to literacy and numeracy performance
• develop strategies to improve the literacy and numeracy skills of students.

Students will also participate in the trial of common national literacy and numeracy tests.

Reading Recovery teachers train in-service for a year, then continue to receive ongoing professional development.

There are two Reading Recovery training centres and three certified teacher trainers in the state.

In 2004 each Reading Recovery school trained another teacher as an independent observer to administer assessment tasks.

In 2005, 55 schools and 66 teachers were involved in the Reading Recovery program.

During 2004, 507 students received assistance through Reading Recovery.

Reading Recovery teacher trainers will facilitate a Prep to Year 4 literacy intervention trial targeting teachers from small schools in nominated clusters.

National interest in the document was generated as a result of its publication on the Australian government’s Department of Education, Science and Training website.

The resource will be used as part of ongoing professional learning focusing on mental computation.

Stepping Out was funded to operate in high schools and combined schools across the state.

In 2004 over 600 teachers were trained in two of the three modules of the program.

In 2005, 18 schools received extra support in Stepping Out approaches.

Materials were added to the online resource Learning, Teaching and Assessment Guide.

Officers developed resources to support school communities in their understanding of what the Being numerate element meant.

Additional materials, such as best practice exemplars, annotated work samples and scope and sequences will be developed.

Evaluation indicated growth in teacher knowledge, confidence and understanding of mathematical concepts and pedagogy in middle years numeracy.

Evaluation will be extended to identifying changes in student understanding and attitude.

Recommendations for quality practices in teaching for numeracy in the middle years will be developed.

Unlocking Literacy, a foundational literacy training approach, was created and distributed to primary and combined schools.

Work commenced on a parent Read at Home kit.

All parents with children in the primary years will receive a copy of the Read at Home kit through their school.

It is expected that over 400 Aboriginal students will be provided with extra literacy and numeracy support through the scheme.

The program is aimed at improving literacy for early secondary level students, focusing on helping them to develop reading strategies that will assist them across all their subjects.

The equivalent of nine full-time teachers worked intensively with Year 7 students identified as likely to benefit from further support in literacy.

All Restart teachers undertook specific professional learning.

The sharing of information, observations and strategies required by Restart created strong links between Restart teachers and their school colleagues in support of the initiative.

Evaluation of the initiative will involve analysis of student assessments, questionnaires and statewide monitoring data.